Dominion Unofficially Comes To iOS

Dominion is a deck-building card game created by Donald X. Vaccarino and published by Rio Grande Games. It is highly acclaimed and has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Spiel des Jahres. Like many popular games, Dominion has received an iOS port.

As reported by Touch Arcade, an official licensed version of Dominion may only be a few weeks away. A post was found on the forums of Board Game Geek, in which Jay Tummelson, the founder and owner of Rio Grande Games, okayed the unofficial version for the time being:

Over the past two years, RGG has been approached by a number of people asking to do a “casual” and free app for Dominion. In such cases, we have usually said yes with the stipulation that once the “official” Dominion app became available that the free app would be removed. Cory is one of those who asked and, as with others, we gave him permission to develop a free Dominion app, which I understand he has finished. I admit some surprise as it has been months since we last spoke and I had assumed he had decided not to complete the app. In any case, as long as it is free, it is allowed, at least for a few weeks until the licensed app becomes available.

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Over Christmas, I came into possession of both the original Dominion game, as well as one of its expansions. I was naturally curious about this unofficial app. It appears to be a faithful port, although there’s nothing slick or graphically impressive about the interface. It also does not feature any of the cards from Dominion’s many expansion packs. Fans of Dominion will no doubt flock to this app, since it is free. It currently has high ratings, although that’s more a reflection of Dominion’s greatness and not the app’s. There’s no harm in trying the game, but I’m personally waiting for the official version. In the meantime, I would rather play a Dominion clone like Battle of Gundabad to get my fix.